Canadian Online Pharmacy

Medindia Health News

Medindia Health News

Link to Medindia Health News

Updated Guidelines on Hormone Replacement Therapy

Posted:

To provide clarity around the role of Hormone Replacement Therapy, the British Menopause Society and Women's Health Concern have released updated guidelines on HRT, the benefits and the risks. The new guidelines appear in the society's flagship title, iMenopause International/i, published by SAGE. Over the last 11 years, HRT has changed from being branded the "elixir of youth" to being considered extremely risky and only to be used in certain circumstances. ...

New 1-step Genetic Engineering Technology

Posted:

The workhorses of biotechnology, scientists are reporting that a new streamlined approach to genetic engineering drastically reduces the time and effort needed to insert new genes into bacteria. Published in the journal iACS Synthetic Biology/i, the method paves the way for more rapid development of designer microbes for drug development, environmental cleanup and other activities. Keith Shearwin and colleagues explain that placing, or integrating, ...

Economic Incentives Increase Blood Donation

Posted:

Johns Hopkins Carey Business School Assistant Professor Mario Macis and a team of researchers says the answer is an emphatic yes. Pointing to a large body of recent research that supports their argument, the three economists write in the May 24, 2013, issue of Science that the World Health Organization and national blood collection agencies should reconsider their opposition to economic incentives for much-needed blood donations. Macis and his co-authors ...

Drug Reverses Alzheimer's Disease Deficits in Mice: Research

Posted:

In an Alzheimer's disease mouse model, an anti-cancer drug reverses memory deficits, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health researchers confirm in the journal iScience/i. The research, funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer's Association, reviewed previously published findings on the drug bexarotene, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in cutaneous T cell lymphoma. The ...

Highly Respected Research Teams Unable to Confirm High-profile Alzheimer's Study

Posted:

Highly respected Alzheimer's researchers team failed to replicate what appeared to be breakthrough results for the treatment of this brain disease when they were published last year in the journal iScience/i. Those results, presented online Feb. 9, 2012, suggested that the drug bexarotene (marketed as Targretin (Regd) ) could rapidly reverse the buildup of beta amyloid plaques (A (and) #946;) - a pathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease - in the brains of mice. According ...

Unemployment Stokes Unrest In Stockholm's Suburbs

Posted:

The immigrant-heavy Stockholm suburb where riots have raged for five straight nights, behind the well-kept lawns and flowerbeds of Husby, unemployment is fuelling despair among the young residents. Nearly a week of unrest across the Swedish capital has raised questions about the assimilation of immigrants, who dominate low-income neighbourhoods in the main cities and make up about 15 percent of the total population. Husby's brightly coloured concrete ...

China's Catholics Gather in Shanghai Celebration

Posted:

In a show of religious fervour permitted by the Communist-ruled state, thousands of Chinese Catholics gathered in Shanghai for a celebration to honour the Virgin Mary. China exercises strict control over religion, requiring followers to worship in state-approved churches. In an annual tradition dating back more than a hundred years, pilgrims walked up Sheshan -- or She Mountain -- the site of two churches and the seminary for Shanghai's Catholic Diocese ...

Doll Making Gains Popularity Among Tripura Women

Posted:

In Tripura, women are finding different ways of becoming financially independent. And doll making is fast emerging as a preferred choice of profession among rural womenfolk. Namita Mallick, a resident of Hapania village near Agartala, is a housewife. But, owing to her special skills in making dolls, she has now become a well-known entrepreneur in the state. In 2005, Namita formed a self-help group and started making dolls, bags and other decorative ...

Archeologists Discover 5,000 Cave Paintings in Mexico

Posted:

In a northeastern Mexico mountain range, archeologists have found nearly 5,000 cave paintings made by hunter-gatherers where pre-Hispanic groups were not known to have existed. The yellow, red, white and black paintings depict humans, deers, lizards and centipedes, suggesting that the groups hunted, fished and gathered food, according to the National Anthropology and History Institute (INAH). They also painted religious, astronomical and abstract scenes ...

EGFR Prevents Maturation of Cancer-fighting MiRNAs When Oxygen Is Short

Posted:

A cancer-promoting growth factor receptor fires away, sending signals that thwart the development of tumor-suppressing microRNAs (miRNAs) before it's dissolved, even while being dragged to its destruction inside a cell. This was reported by researchers in an early online publication at iNature/i. Under conditions of oxygen starvation often encountered by tumors, the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gums up the cell's miRNA-processing machinery, ...

Five Cups of Coffee Per Day can be Lethal, Says Study

Posted:

Drinking five cups of coffee a day has been linked to obesity and chronic diseases, reveals study. It is the first study in the world to look at higher doses of coffee, rather than the equivalent of one or two cups, and it found that five coffees doubled the fat around organs in the abdomen - a type of fat that causes deadly conditions, News.com.au reported. A compound in coffee known as Chlorogenic Acid (CGA) was thought to have health benefits, ...

Now New Methods are Used to Detect HIV Antibodies

Posted:

Detection of HIV antibodies is used to monitor trials of experimental HIV/AIDS vaccines and diagnose HIV infection. New, more sensitive detection systems being developed use microspheres to capture HIV antibodies and can measure even small amounts of multiple antibodies at one time. This novel multiplex immunoassay approach is described in an article in iBioResearch Open Access/i, a peer-reviewed open access journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http:www.liebertpub.com). ...

New Compounds to Curb Staph Infection Identified

Posted:

A potent new class of compounds capable of curbing the bacteria that cause staph infections has been discovered by scientists. Writing online in the iJournal of the American Chemical Society/i, a group led by University of Wisconsin-Madison chemistry Professor Helen Blackwell describes agents that effectively interfere with the "quorum sensing" behavior of iStaphylococcus aureus/i, a bacterium at the root of a host of human infections ranging ...

Skin for Robots Developed

Posted:

Artificial skins and sensor technologies to augment "sensitivity" in robots have been engineered by European scientists. The new capabilities, and a production system for building touch-sensitivity into different robots, will improve the way robots work in unconstrained settings, as well as their ability to communicate and cooperate with each other and with humans, reports Science Daily. The European Union-funded project 'Skin-based technologies ...

Mild Hypothyroidism Raises Mortality Risk in Heart Patients

Posted:

According to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's iJournal of Clinical Endocrinology (and) Metabolism/i (JCEM), patients with underlying heart failure are more likely to experience adverse outcomes from mild hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism occurs when an underactive thyroid does not produce enough hormones. More than 9.5 million people nationwide have hypothyroidism. People who have thyroid function at the low end of the normal range ...

Test Your Motion Quotient

Posted:

People with higher IQ scores were faster at catching the movement of the bars when observing the smallest image. The results support prior research showing that individuals with higher IQs make simple perceptual judgments swifter and have faster reflexes. "Being 'quick witted' and 'quick on the draw' generally go hand in hand," says Melnick. But the tables turned when presented with the larger images. The higher a person's IQ, the slower they were at detecting ...

Saudi Arabia to Send Animal Samples to US in SARS-like Virus Probe

Posted:

The Saudi health ministry said that it would send samples taken from animals possibly infected with a deadly SARS-like virus to the United States for testing in a bid to find the source of disease. The ministry has "collected large samples from bats and other animals, including camels, sheep and cats," said Saudi Deputy Health Minister Ziad Memish. So far, there have been 44 lab-confirmed cases worldwide of the virus, which until now has been known as ...

Mexico Paying Heavy Price for Its Diet

Posted:

In a Mexico City street taco stand, Artemio Martinez balanced his corpulent frame on a stool, downing a sweet soda and eating a final pork-filled corn tortilla. "Can you give me another soft drink to quickly wash down the fifth taco? And the bill please," Martinez, a 42-year-old accountant weighing in at 140 kilograms (309 pounds), asked the cook. The damage for his wallet is relatively light: 40 pesos ( (Dollar) 3) for five meat tortillas and 18 pesos ( (Dollar) 1.4) ...

80 Year Old Japanese Man Sets World Record

Posted:

An 80-year-old Japanese climber reached the summit of Mount Everest, becoming the oldest person to scale the world's highest mountain, his website and a Nepalese official revealed. Yuichiro Miura and his party arrived at the summit at around 9am (0315 GMT), according to the website. "I feel like the happiest person in the world. How could I have come so far at the world's oldest age of 80," Miura said. "I have never felt like this in my life. But I've ...

For Severe Form Of Rheumatoid Arthritis, Enzyme-Activating Antibodies Revealed As Marker

Posted:

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that in the most severe cases of the disease, the immune system makes a unique subset of antibodies that have a disease-promoting role. They have performed a series of lab experiments designed to unravel the workings of a key enzyme widely considered a possible trigger of rheumatoid arthritis. Reporting in the journal iScience Translational Medicine/i online May 22, the Johns Hopkins team describes how it found ...

Saudi Women may Access Football Stadium in the Near Future

Posted:

In Saudi Arabia, women could be allowed in to football stadiums in the near future after the head of the country's football federation said he was in favour of the idea. Ahmed Eid said such access could be granted "soon", raising the possibility that 15 percent of the under-construction King Abdullah stadium in Jeddah could be made into family boxes, where women could watch matches. The stadium is due to be finished next year. But the subject ...

Report Gives An Explanation For How We Focus and Concentrate

Posted:

The team reveal the interplay of brain chemicals which help us pay attention in work funded by the Wellcome Trust and BBSRC. The report will be published in iNeuron/i. By changing the way neurons respond to external stimuli we improve our perceptual abilities. While these changes can affect the strength of a neuronal response, they can also affect the fidelity of that response. Lead author Alex Thiele, Professor of Visual Neuroscience explains: ...

Scientists Make New Discovery in Fight Against Deadly Meningococcal Disease

Posted:

Professor Jennings said, "Neisseria meningitidis is an important human pathogen that can cause rapidly progressing, life threatening meningitis and meningococcal sepsis in humans." "Until now we have not known how it attaches to the human host. It has been a long-standing mystery how it attaches to the airway to colonise "People can be carriers of the bug and not get any symptoms, while some people progress to invasive disease. To understand why, ...

In COPD Patients, Inflammation Is Associated With Depression

Posted:

In chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients, depression is common and has been linked with disease severity and impaired quality of life. Now, for the first time, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have linked the systemic inflammation associated with COPD with depression in these patients. "Systemic inflammation is thought to be an important mediator of comorbidities in COPD, but the relationship between inflammation and depression ...

Delayed Transfer to the ICU Increases Mortality Risk

Posted:

According to a new study from researchers in Chicago, delayed transfer to the intensive care unit (ICU) in hospitalized patients significantly increases the risk of dying in the hospital. "Early intervention improves outcomes for many of the conditions that are indications for inpatient transfer to the ICU. This suggests that delaying ICU transfer may increase the risk of death in these patients," said lead author Matthew Churpek, MD, MPH, of the University of Chicago ...

Research Links Depression to Telomere Enzyme, Aging, Chronic Disease

Posted:

The first symptoms of major depression may be behavioral. Despite this, the common mental illness is based in biology - and not limited to the brain. In recent years some studies have linked major, long-term depression with life-threatening chronic disease and with earlier death, even after lifestyle risk factors have been taken into account. Now a research team led by Owen Wolkowitz, MD, professor of psychiatry at UC San Francisco, has found that within cells ...

OSA is Associated With Less Visceral Fat Accumulation in Women Than Men: Study

Posted:

A new study from researchers in Japan indicates that obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is independently associated with visceral (abdominal) fat accumulation only in men, perhaps explaining gender differences in the impact of OSA on cardiovascular disease and mortality. "Visceral fat accumulation, which is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, is also associated with OSA, and gender differences in mortality related to sleep apnea have been reported in some studies. ...

Cheaper Yen Attracts More Tourists to Japan

Posted:

A government agency revealed that in April, a record 923,000 foreigners travelled to Japan, up 18.1 percent from a year earlier, taking advantage of a weaker yen and an increase in chartered flights. The previous monthly high was 879,000 in July 2010, the Japan National Tourism Organisation said. Tourism has rebounded since 2011, when visitor numbers plunged following the massive earthquake and tsunami that ravaged Japan's northeast and sparked a nuclear ...

Researchers Conduct Genomic Survey of Human Skin Fungal Diversity

Posted:

Since humans have harnessed the power of yeast to ferment bread and beer, the function of yeast or other types of fungi is not well understood that live in and on the human body. In the first study of human fungal skin diversity, National Institutes of Health researchers sequenced the DNA of fungi at skin sites of healthy adults to define the normal populations across the skin and to provide a framework for investigating fungal skin conditions. Human ...

Have You Ever Wondered How Healthy You Are For Your Age?

Posted:

Details of a technique to measure the health of human genetic material in relation to a patient's age will be published by Jove/a on May 22nd. The method is demonstrated by the laboratory of Dr. Gil Atzmon at New York's Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Atzmon hopes that the dissemination of this technique will lead to the development of a "genetic thermometer" to assess a patient's health in relation to other individuals of the same age. The iJoVE/i ...

COPD Is Associated With Significant and Persistent Pain: Study

Posted:

Though chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is primarily associated with the respiratory symptoms that are its hallmark, the patients who struggle with the disease also experience significant amounts of chronic pain. A new study conducted by researchers in Pennsylvania and New Mexico estimates the degree of pain suffered by these patients to be close to that experienced by patients with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. The research results will ...

How Immune System Peacefully Co-exists With 'Good' Bacteria?

Posted:

Commensal bacteria is loaded in the human gut - "good" microbes that, among other functions, help the body digest food. The gastrointestinal tract contains literally trillions of such cells, and yet the immune system seemingly turns a blind eye. However, in several chronic human diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), HIV/AIDS, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, the immune system attacks these normally beneficial bacteria, resulting in chronic ...

Deficiencies Found in Addictions Training for Medical Residents

Posted:

At Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a 2012 survey of internal medicine residents - one of the nation's leading teaching hospitals - found that more than half rated the training they had received in addiction and other substance use disorders as fair or poor. Significant numbers felt unprepared to diagnose or treat such disorders, results similar to surveys of practicing physicians. In response to the findings, recently published online in the journal iSubstance ...

A Step to Unlocking Mystery of Ageing Taken By Swiss Researchers

Posted:

A step closer to unlocking the mystery of ageing was taken by Swiss researchers after discovering the impact of a longevity gene in mice and then managing to extend the life-span of worms by 60 percent thanks to a basic antibiotic treatment. "They were not only living longer, but were also more fit," said Johan Auwerx ion a video released by the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), a cutting-edge Swiss research institute. The findings of ...

Women With Severe Injuries are Less Likely Than Men to be Treated in a Trauma Center: Study

Posted:

According to a new study of almost 100,000 Canadian patients, women are less likely than men to receive care in a trauma center after severe injury. "Gender-based disparities in access to healthcare services in general have been recognized for some time and evidence is emerging that these disparities extend to the treatment of severe injuries in trauma centers," says lead author Andrea Hill. MSc, PhD, a post-doctoral fellow at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre ...

To Test the Effects of Drugs Scientists Develop Worm EEG

Posted:

A device which records the brain activity of worms to help test the effects of drugs was developed by scientists from the University of Southampton. NeuroChip is a microfluidic electrophysiological device, which can trap the microscopic worm iCaenorhadbitis elegans/i and record the activity of discrete neural circuits in its 'brain' - a worm equivalent of the EEG. iC. elegans/i have been enormously important in providing insight into fundamental ...

Largest Genetic Sequencing Study of Human Disease Completed By Researchers

Posted:

The largest sequencing study of human disease to date, investigating the genetic basis of six autoimmune diseases was led by researchers from Queen Mary, University of London. The exact cause of these diseases - autoimmune thyroid disease, coeliac disease, Crohn's disease, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes- is unknown, but is believed to be a complex combination of genetic and environmental factors. In each disease only a proportion of the heritability ...

Study: Facebook Considered 'Social Burden' by Teens

Posted:

A recent study has found that Facebook is considered more a social burden than a loved networking site by its young users. The study conducted by Pew Research Center of children between the age group of 12 to 17 found Facebook was losing its crucial demographic, which long fueled its success. According to the Huffington Post, teens are increasingly abandoning Facebook for other sites like Instagram, Twitter, MySpace where they tend to have more privacy, ...

Newly Identified Immune Protein Could Stop Diabetes in Its Tracks: Melbourne Researchers

Posted:

Melbourne researchers have identified an immune protein that has the potential to stop or reverse the development of type 1 diabetes in its early stages, before insulin-producing cells have been destroyed. The discovery has wider repercussions, as the protein is responsible for protecting the body against excessive immune responses, and could be used to treat, or even prevent, other immune disorders such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Professor ...

WHO Concerned Over Potential Spread of SARS-Like Virus Among Humans

Posted:

The World Health Organization deputy chief has voiced deep concern over the potential spread of SARS-like virus that has so far killed 22 people in less than a year. "We have a high level of concern over the potential... for this virus to have sustainable person-to-person spread," WHO deputy chief Keiji Fukuda told diplomats gathered in Geneva for the World Health Assembly, the UN agency's decision-making body. There has already been evidence of limited ...

Targeting Cell 'Power Plants' Promising Approach for Prevention of Drug-Resistant Cancers

Posted:

A new study published in the journal ACS Chemical Biology suggests that re-routing cancer drugs to the 'power plants' of the cells that keep them alive is a promising approach to preventing emergence of the drug-resistant forms of cancer. Shana Kelley and colleagues explain that doxorubicin and other common forms of chemotherapy work by damaging the genes inside the nucleus of cancer cells. Cancer cells divide and multiply faster than surrounding normal cells, ...

Preventable Bloodstream Infections Among Patients may Provide Financial Boost to Hospitals

Posted:

A new study conducted by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests that hospitals may be benefiting financially when their patients suffer from preventable bloodstream infections when in intensive care units. In a small, new study, reported online in the iAmerican Journal of Medical Quality/i, the researchers found that an ICU patient who develops an avoidable central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) costs nearly three times more to care for than a similar ...

Non-Surgical Breast Cancer Therapy Trial Underway in Japan

Posted:

The first clinical trial to test the effectiveness of a powerful, non-surgical, short-term radiation therapy for breast cancer has been started by a cancer specialist in Japan. The National Institute of Radiological Sciences has begun the trial using "heavy ion radiotherapy" which emits a pinpoint beam that can be accurately directed at malignant cells, said Kumiko Karasawa, radiation oncologist and breast cancer specialist. The study was launched amid ...

Risk of Cancer Posed by CT Scans Should be Weighed Against Benefits in Diagnosing Diseases

Posted:

While CT scans may lead to a small increase in risk of cancer among children and adolescents, University of Melbourne's Professor John Mathews said that this risk should be weighed against the large number of benefits provided by such scans in diagnosing and monitoring diseases. The study findings are reported in the iBritish Medical Journal/i today and involved researchers at eight other centres in Australia, Oxford University, and the International Agency ...

Study Underlines Benefits of Linking Multiple Health Record Sources

Posted:

A new study has found that one in two heart attack cases are missed to due physicians using just one data source and this problem is common to other conditions, such as stroke. Electronic health records are increasingly used to measure health outcomes, and for research, but records from one part of the health service (e.g. primary care) may not capture health events occurring in other parts of the health system (e.g. hospital care). So a team of researchers ...

More Than a Third of Young Adults in Mexico Have Genetic Risk of Obesity

Posted:

A new study conducted by a University of Illinois researcher at the Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potos reveals that more than a third of Mexican young adults have a genetic predisposition for obesity. "The students who inherited genetic risk factors from both parents were already 15 pounds heavier and 2 inches bigger around the waist than those who hadn't. They also had slightly higher fasting glucose levels," said Margarita Teran-Garcia, a U of I professor ...

Human Immunity to H7N9 Flu Virus is too Low

Posted:

The first-ever population level study that examined human immunity to the H7N9 flu virus found that the level of immunity among the urban and rural population living in Vietnam is very low. The study used a new, high throughput method that allows blood samples to be analysed for antibodies to multiple human and animal influenza viruses at the same time and is easier to standardise than previous techniques. However, the assay is yet to be validated clinically for ...

A1-PI can Slow Down Emphysema Progression in Patients With Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency

Posted:

A new study presented at the 2013 American Thoracic Society International Conference suggests that using Alpha-1 proteinase inhibitor (A1-PI) to treat patients with Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) can help slow down the progression of emphysema. The study showed the efficacy of A1-PIin preventing the loss of lung tissue as measured by computed tomography (CT) scan lung density at full inspiration (TLC), which is a more sensitive measure of disease progression ...

Research Highlights Challenges in Surgical Management of Spine Trauma in Morbidly Obese Patients

Posted:

The logistic, medical, and societal challenges faced in treating spine trauma in morbidly obese patients have been described by physicians at Monash University and The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. Based on a case series of six patients injured in high-speed motor vehicle accidents, the authors categorize difficulties faced in the care of morbidly obese patients from on-scene immobilization and medical transport through spinal imaging, surgery, and postoperative ...

Mom Gives Birth to Baby Girl While Technically Dead

Posted:

A high school teacher in Missouri City, Texas, gave birth to a baby girl while she was technically dead but was later revived and both the mother and the baby are doing well. Erica Nigrelli was teaching a class in February when she fainted. Erica was 36 weeks into her pregnancy and her husband and fellow teacher, Nathan, desperately called emergency services and said that she was foaming from her mouth and was unresponsive. Her colleagues tried to revive ...

New Technique can Detect Breast Cancer by Analyzing Urine Samples

Posted:

A new screening technique that can detect breast cancer by analyzing urine samples has been developed by a professor of chemistry at Missouri University of Science and Technology. The technique has been developed by Dr Yinfa Ma who made use of a device known as P-scan which can detect the presence of pteredines (metabolites) in the urine samples. While pteredines are present in the urine samples of all humans, high concentrations can be an indicator of cancer. ...

Childhood Obesity Linked to Birth by C-Sections

Posted:

Babies who are born through caesarean section were more likely to become obese by the time they are teenagers compared to babies being delivered vaginally, a new study revealed. Researchers at New York University School of Medicine observed over 10,000 infants in the UK who were born between 1991 and 1992 and found that by the time they turned 11 years old, those who were delivered through a C-section were 83 percent more likely to be obese than those delivered naturally. ...

Intensity of Hot Flushes Influences Memory Loss After Menopause

Posted:

A new study published in the journal Menopause reveals that women do suffer from memory loss after menopause and those who have the most hot flushes were the most likely to experience memory problems. The study was conducted by researchers at University of Illinois and Northwestern University who recruited around 68 women between 44 and 62 years of age and each of whom experienced at least 35 hot flushes a week. The researchers tested the women on their recollection ...